Taxes

[Phoebe]

I know in the libertarian Utopia, we're living right now, today, one small step away from the natural right to seize up land crumbling in our hands and thereby build our Empires free of governmental interference and taxation. But here in the real world, where all the rules and boundaries of a big complex game have been set long before we were ever birthed into the world, there is no longer even shameless lip service paid to the value of taxation for public benefit. Remember trickle down economics? It was a big fat joke, roundly refuted. But at least people who wanted to steal money away from the poor and give it to the rich felt that they had to come up with some flimsy justification to mask the effort. Nowadays I guess it's refreshing that we need no excuse. Just take it because we can, because we're greedy, and greed is good, and theft is good, and there are welfare recipients running all around in Cadillacs, obviously, so if I dip my hand into the public till to the tune of millions that is both OK and just like anybody else is doing!

[Stan]

I still hear trickle down economics constantly from conservatives, despite the total lack of empirical evidence.

Something that takes many forms but constantly pops up is the myth of the deserving poor. It can be racial, caste, religious, etc. but it comes down to an excuse to take as much as you want without giving back. People buy into it for the comfort of not having to help others. Ayn Rand's crap gives people a reason to believe that they are elite and just better than most people so they can take help from others but not give it in return and that's ok because they are special and deserve it. The prosperity gospel has really grown in the last couple of decades in the U.S. - it's like parody sequel of Calvinism's predestination and knowing the saved by their works. If you're rich, that's they way God wants it - the only person you're supposed to give charity to is your pastor so they can get rich and your giving to them magically makes you richer some day.

Between Randies, the infiltration of of Evangelicalism with the prosperity gospel, and the planting of the idea that welfare is something blacks use (thus bad if you're a white racist) or is for lazy people, you have a huge wave of anti-government sentiment. Yet these people still want to make use of government services like Medicare and roads; they just don't want to pay for it.

[mimekiller]

I 100 percent don't blame corporations for exploiting tax holes and I 100 percent do blame the elected officials that created such a awful system that made is possible in the first place.

[Phoebe]